Motivation:

In this community portal we intend that large numbers of users will be creating content, many of whom will be very limited in their computing skills. Thus we want to create a very simple, intuitive experience for them. Plone offers a rich environment, with many options for people who create content. We want many of these options to be hidden from ordinary users and the controls re-arranged and simplified. However, we expect that users with reviewer or greater privileges will have the full facilities open to them.

Draft specification:

 1. User names and their listings:

The principle is that in the main places where members names appear the full name should appear and it should be linked to the user’s profile page. There is now a confusion caused by the use of the user id as the name of a user's folder, and the use of the user's folder to identify the user.

The full name is already used in the upper grey bar, as the name of the author of an item and in the listing of group members. Where the full name is displayed on the grey bar or as author it links to the personal profile, which is what we are asking for. In the listing of group members, it is linked to the user’s folder. That should be changed to the personal profile.

The apparent 'list of members' displayed in the 'members' folder is actually the list of users' folders, not the list of members. When the content of that folder is displayed, it shows the members picture (if there is one) with the user id as the caption. Both are linked to the folder, not the user’s profile page.

In the navigation we propose that the full name is used and that the link is to the user profile. The full listing of ‘members’ should show the pictures, where they are present. The caption should be the full user name and should link to the user’s profile page. Thus the list of members should become just that and not the list of user's folders.

2. The user folder:

Instead of being given the same name as the user id, it should be called “full name’s stuff”. This is what will appear in the breadcrumb trail and will remove the confusion between the user’s profile page and their folder .

3. Folder contents

At present there there are several formats for displaying the contents of a folder, which can be confusing when moving from one to another.

• The standard view shows the title, author and description and is best for people who aren’t logged in or for logged in users in folders where they cannot make changes.
• Where basic users can make changes, they should by default see the listing now viewed through the contents tab. That format also allows cut/copy/paste/rename and modfying the order and so removes the need for the 'actions' tab in the green bar.
  

4. Users profile page:

By this we mean the page that is displayed when clicking on the user’s name as author or the grey bar. The present page as displayed is quite close to what we want. It includes the portrait, a biography and the latest content created by the user in a table arranged by category. It is created in the user preferences edit form.

• The two tabs now are view and edit. The second should be changed to "edit profile and preferences'.
• The edit form that appears should be changed as follows:
• The 'biography' field, has an extremely limited format: just text without even allowing for paragraphs. We are proposing that the biography field should be replaced by a Kupu-editable field, that allows styles, links, pictures, etc. The edit form should offer some suggestions for content.
• It should include the portrait (and delete portrait). However that should be improved so that it doesn’t distort wrongly proportioned images.
• It should include change of password, rather than have a separate page for this.
• It should include the full name to be used as above.
• Include the email address, to be used to send emails, but not to be displayed.
• Include the location, asked for as post code, for later use in maps.
• Include the external home page, to be displayed in the profile page if included.
• Remove: language, choice of content editor, listed in searches, ‘Look’ (choice of skins). ‘Enable external editing’ and ‘editing of short names’ should also be removed, but this can be done through the site setup.

5. Upper grey bar:

Should only contain user name, my folder (but renamed as ‘my stuff’), logout. Remove preferences (should only be linked from the user’s profile as above. Remove ‘undo’ (should be moved to the green bar, see below).

6. Green bar for logged in users:

This is now extremely confusing, because the upper and lower entries have different functional origins at a deep technical level that wouldn't be clear to a naive user. Moreover, many of the functions are not needed for basic users.

• Instead of a bar it could just be an outline with three tabs: ‘Add item’, edit and undo, which function as at present.
• Remove ‘contents’ tab for folders, and ‘view’ tab. These become the default views when an item is selected in the navigation, a folder listing, or a link, or when an edit form is saved and so separate tabs aren’t needed.
• Remove the ‘properties’ tab. The options it offers for contributors, creators, language, and copyrights aren’t needed for basic users.  Effective date and expiration date aren’t needed except for events, where they are already in the edit form. The remaining properties are ‘allow discussion on this item’, ‘exclude from navigation’ and ‘keywords’. These are desirable and should be moved instead to the edit forms for basic objects: events, files, folders, images, news items, pages, and listings (a special type in our portal).
• Sharing: Not needed for items in the user folder.
• Actions: Remove this tab. The options for cut/copy/paste/rename can all be done from a folder contents table and so a separate tab isn’t needed.
• State: Having this as separate from the edit form is confusing, as naive users don’t realise they need to use it after they have saved their item. It should be removed as a separate tab and incorporated in the basic objects, as with the Properties tab.

7. Edit forms:

  The edit field for the main objects created by basic users – events, files, folders, images, news items, pages, and listings (a special type in our portal)  – should be simplified for basic users, but with some of the options in properties and state added as above.

• Description field: People often are unclear about the distinction between ‘description’ and ‘body text’, so the description field should be relabeled as ‘summary’ and the instruction text should say “limited to a 150 character summary that will appear in many listings.”
• Remove ‘Related Items’ and ‘Version comment’.
• Edit form for events - This can be simplified by using a copy of the table that appears when the event is published with fields to enter: event URL, contact name, contact email, contact phone, start date and time, end date and time (with an simpler option for one day events), event location. Bring all of these together, above the event body text.